Quick Movie Review

The Guest (2014, USA) | Rating: 2/5
We've already had movies recently that deal with strangers coming into a person's home intentional. The main character usually thinks nothing of it, but soon they learn their mistake the hard way. This is another one of those movies and I couldn't help but compare it to a recent watch, No Good Deed. While the execution differs, the basic elements are somewhat the same. The major difference is our protagonist is more mentally unstable and has a military history. I mentioned that the pacing felt dragged out in No Good Deed, I didn't really have that problem with this movie, but my feelings toward it are about the same. It's pumped with more violence, so it kept my attention a little more, but it's still forgettable.



Horns (2014, USA) | Rating: 3.5/5
I believe the only post-Harry Potter movie I've seen from Daniel Radcliffe was The Woman in Black, which I thought was pretty boring and I'm surprised there's a sequel that exists. I must say this is way better. Similar to Life After Beth, this movie focuses on a male protagonist who is coping with the loss his girlfriend, except Radcliffe's character isn't annoyed by her like the other movie. The movie takes some supernatural elements that deal with finding out what happened to said girlfriend, but instead of zombies we have Satan...kinda. I thought the story was very interesting, unique, and entertaining. There were plenty of twists and turns and I was on the edge of my seat toward the final act.



The Man From Nowhere (2010, South Korea) | Rating: 4/5
I was amused to the see the comments on Tumblr mention that Liam Neeson got his technique ideas from this movie. Too bad Taken came out before this movie. heh I can see the similarities even though I've never seen a Taken movie, but it definitely has that urgency and need to protect that I'm sure those movies would have. This movie vaguely reminded me of A Company Man. Maybe because they're both Korean action movies with male leads and that feel a sense of need to protect a specific female character. Both of these movies are great and I think one major difference between the male leads is that in this movie we barely know anything about his background. He's almost a silent protagonist, but I enjoy the mystery behind him. Despite his background being ambiguous, the movie gives you enough to care about his cause and understand his motives, which can be a challenging task to execute. Overall, this was an exciting movie from the start and it was easy to get sucked into the action.



Amusement (2008, USA) | Rating: 1/5
I forgot which friend mentioned this movie scaring her, but I was curious. Anything that scares or traumatizes a friend I'm interested...and I'm very aware how strange that sounds. Before I comment on this movie, I do not recommend this to anyone who has a fear of clowns. This will not help you get rid of that. Anyway, I didn't know what to expect going into this horror flick, except the obvious clown on the box cover. The movie starts with a couple on a round trip...a very drag out moment with them that I deem almost, if not completely, irrelevant to the rest of the story. I figured the director needed to pad out some time so the movie will be at least over an hour long. Once the main plot of the movie gets rolling, there's lots of details missing to truly pull you into it. So, you end up not caring about these three young women being terrorized by a childhood friend/peer. The movie mainly focuses on the gore and trying to gross the viewer out. It makes a poor attempt of creeping you out with its characters and its jump scares all seem to fall flat due to lack of build up and perhaps predictability.



Tyler Perry's Madea's Tough Love (2015, USA) | Rating: 2.5/5
Even though I have my criticisms about Tyler Perry's work, I still manage to keep track of when he has something new out and don't worry, those criticisms will be voiced in a later post. When I saw this new title, I thought it was another movie inspired by one of his plays, instead it was a straight to DVD animated release, which I think was for the best decision. This is a family friendly movie with minimal singing. The animation is pretty decent and made me miss watching The Proud Family on the Disney Channel even more. The story isn't anything new. It's something that has been done millions of times with the same outcome, but overall it isn't a terrible film. There are some minor problematic stereotyping, but nothing to really get seriously angry about. Overall, this is a basic harmless cartoon that you can watch with the kids.


If there's something you want me to review (or want a more in depth review of the movies above or previous ones), check out this post on how you can submit requests.